The Outer Planets In Astrology

You could see the outer planets as high cosmic voltage. Also known as Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, they’re relatively recent discoveries.

For millennia, astrology dealt with the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. My favorite historical astrologer Paracelsus, for example, would not even have known he had Mercury conjunct Pluto.

Broadly, the inner planets describe various aspects of human culture and experience. They’re archetypes – the Sun = identity or the self you’re trying to actualize while the Moon is internal you, your psyche and deep memory stores. Mercury equates to communicative you, your transmission.

But they’re also the Individualist, Rock-Star, Empath, Priestess, Scribe, Trickster etc.

Venus and Mars reflect Witch/Whore/Beauty and Warrior/Aggressor/Athlete personae. Jupiter and Saturn are omnipresent as hubris and nemesis, Hustler and Sage. People are described as mercurial, jovial, or saturnine – literally terms that pertain to Mercury, Jupiter and Saturn,

We measure our very days by the original Sun, Moon, and original planets.

But the Outer Planets are beyond these familiar concepts. They’re called “generational” as they move so slowly that their signs and aspects to one another or even Saturn represent entire eras. They’re epochal by nature.

For example, being a Pluto in Virgo person is more about being a part of Generation X than any personal characteristics. Having Neptune and Uranus conjunct in Capricorn reflects the early 90s culture you were born into more than your unique nature.

The children born between 2019 and 2021 will all have Saturn conjunct Pluto, a sub-generation within the wider Pluto in Capricorn people.

(That is why my Astral DNA delineates the outer planets by house and aspects to the Sun, Moon, Ascendant, Midheaven, and inner planets only.)

But what happens when you’ve got an outer planet conjunct the Sun, Moon, or personal planet? You’re an outer planet person and thus channeling higher voltage than other people.

It’s not that you are going to be literally zapped by some mysterious outer space force, but metaphysically, you’re more energized than most.

You would have grown up mystified by people frequently pronouncing you to be “too intense” or just flat-out “weird.”  If you remember being a kid and grown-ups reacting to you as if you were a peer of theirs – for better or worse, you’re probably an outer planet person. Your voltage scrambles other people’s systems – it’s like it creates interference in their frequencies.

If your Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus or Mars and – to a lesser extent, Jupiter + Saturn – are closely aligned with an Outer Planet, that’s where you’re tapped into a broader narrative. Likewise, the Ascendant, Midheaven or either of the Moon’s Nodes.

Somehow, you are your generation’s story writ large. It’s where you are ‘weirder’ – picking up on and transmitting the 5th element vibe – aka the so-called ‘Dark Matter’ that evidently makes up most of everything.

Honestly I don’t know how skeptics can even function these days – every second astrophysics discovery more or less proves some aspect of ancient magic.

In that area of life, you’re never satisfied with ‘normality.’ You probably experienced a definitive ‘inexplicable’ or paranormal event at an early age.

Paradoxically, outer planet people need to master Saturn Vibe earlier rather than later.

If they can turn the taxes, self-management, boundaries, worldly affairs, and dental flossing component of life into a streamlined marvel, they’re more able to  soak up magical potency from outer planet rays.

If you’re trying to channel that voltage through a troubled system or rickety relationship, psychic circuits can blow.

Do other aspects besides the conjunction count? Yes, of course. But the conjunction is your astral equivalent of being plugged straight into the grid.

And, say you have no inner planets, Sun/Moon or Ascendant/Midheaven conjunct an outer planet – you will experience it when an outer planet connects with one of those points/planets by transit.

Outer planet transits are the kind of astral passage where you wake up one morning, somehow drawing from a new, stronger power source. Change is no longer an abstraction or apprehension – it’s the energy grid or, as magical practitioner and author Aidan Wachter puts it, the Field.

Another syndrome: relationships where one person is outer planet-influenced and the other is not. They’re compatible, functional and in love, but the outer planet person has to moderate their ‘intensity.’

The strategy never works long-term, and when the 5th element/outer planet vibe comes back online, it will be like a power surge.

Outer planet people can feel alienated – as if people don’t connect with the real them and more enjoy/react to them as catalysts, stimulants, or impersonal forces.

Outer planet influences by any means negate the need or desire for drugs. And if you are grounded enough to channel the high-voltage, next-paradigm inspiration, energy, or information is there for the taking.

Thoughts?

Image: Carson Ellis